GreenShoots

Overview of the GreenShoots program:

Invest Nova Scotia, the Greenspring Bioinnovation Hub and Bioenterprise Canada Corporation have partnered to support early stage technology companies in the agriculture, agri-food, bioeconomy, clean technology, and related sectors. Successful applicants receive up to $40,000 in non-repayable, non-dilutive funding, as well as business guidance from seasoned professionals to put their plans into action. The goal of GreenShoots is to find and support high potential, early stage knowledge-based Nova Scotia companies, and encourage entrepreneurial activity in the province. The support is intended to help improve the export potential of companies, projected impacts on climate change, job creation, and generation of economic impact in rural areas.

Benefits of the GreenShoots program:

• Successful applicants receive up to $40,000 in non-repayable, non-dilutive funding, as well as business guidance from seasoned professionals to put their plans into action.

Eligibility criteria of the GreenShoots program:

• Applicants must be a start-up registered and based in Nova Scotia. They must have a new knowledge-based product (i.e., a unique technology solution that cannot be easily duplicated).
• Applicants must have a technology at or beyond Technology Readiness Level 4 (TRL 4+) stage of development (i.e., competitive applicants have a proof of concept and have completed prototype validation in a laboratory environment, at minimum).
• Applicants must have identified a large market pain and established a company around a customer-validated problem.
• Applicants must be the majority owner(s) (51 per cent or more) of the start-up and plan to work full-time with the business.
• Applicants must be from the agri-technology or bioeconomy sector, including agri-management and agri-waste management; anaerobic digestion; aquaculture; bioenergy; bioproducts (i.e., biofibers, biocomposites, biomaterials, bioplastics); crop science and/or protection; fermentation processes; plant genetics; precision agriculture and data analytics; consumer and industrial agri-food innovations; natural health products; and cannabis technology.
• Applicants must have less than $1 million in cumulative sales.